1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to theme or amusement park rides with rotating platforms or turntables carrying passenger vehicles that can be rotated in a controlled manner, and, more particularly, to an amusement park ride providing racing and other ride experiences by selectively rotating nested and/or stacked turntables that each carry or support one or more passenger pods or vehicles.
2. Relevant Background
Amusement and theme parks are popular worldwide with hundreds of millions of people visiting the parks each year. Park operators continuously seek new designs for rides that attract and entertain guests in new ways. Many parks include a teacups ride that is an amusement ride characterized by cup-style spinning vehicles atop a turntable-like floor or platform.
A spinning tea-cup ride may be a ride system that includes a number of small turntables (such as three smaller turntables), which rotate about a vertical rotation axis. Each of the small turntables holds a number of teacups (such as six teacups or passenger vehicles), and these small turntables are mounted onto a large turntable and are mechanically connected such that rotation of the large turntable causes rotation of the small turntables as well. Further, movement is achieved by allowing the passengers to manually and independently rotate their individual teacups about a vertical rotation axis while their vehicle moves with the large turntable and also with one of the smaller turntables.
Typically, each set of six teacups has a center bearing mounted underneath, similar to a car wheel bearing mounted on a circular floor capable of turning 360 degrees about a vertical axis extending through the teacup/passenger vehicle. The floor or base of the cup sits on a larger turntable-like platform. This turntable or platform is driven by one or more motors through one or more starting devices, and the ride begins to spin slowly and builds up speed until the maximum design speed is reached. The turntable rotates at the maximum design speed until the turntable slows down and stops at the end of the ride cycle. When in operation, the passengers are able to manually and independently spin each cup while the turntable spins the ride platform/turntable about a center vertical axis. The platform may be driven by a motor fixed or coupled with the platform to rotate the platform or turntable. Each of the stacked or nested turntables is mechanically linked within the system such that their rotation is controlled or affected by movement of the other turntables (i.e., the turntables do not rotate independently from each other).
While tea cup and similar spinning rides remain popular with many, these rides fail to attract or be entertaining for some park visitors because the rapid rotations about one or more axes can be physically upsetting and less enjoyable, e.g., make the rider dizzy. Further, the experience is quite predictable and is common between similar rides. Hence, park operators continue to search for rides that will attract the entire family, and provide novel, new rider experiences.
Further, the tea cup and similar ride is attractive because it requires a relatively small footprint, and it would be desirable to provide a family friendly ride with a level of thrill and competitive excitement that could be provided with a footprint similar to a tea cup-like ride. For example, race rides in which vehicles pass each other throughout the ride are popular in many parks, such as dueling roller coasters, race track-based rides, and the like, but each of these rides undesirably requires a large amount of park real estate, require significant maintenance, and limit ridership to riders above a certain height because of the relatively high dynamics of the ride. Hence, it may be desirable to provide a ride that can provide the race or chase experience with a small or at least smaller footprint and that is relatively inexpensive to maintain and that achieves the racing experience without the need for high dynamics.